


A strange Day in July

by Naomi_4102



Category: Original Work
Genre: Art, Ghosts, Hallucinations, Harris Burdick, Mental Breakdown, Mental Institutions, Monster - Freeform, lake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1672793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomi_4102/pseuds/Naomi_4102
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written as a prompt for the picture 'A Strange Day in July' by Harris Burdick. For those of you who don't know the story of Harris Burdick, I put that in the notes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A strange Day in July

**Author's Note:**

> Had to write this for my English class and thought I'd share it with you all. Not overly great but a little freaky.  
> The underlined sentence is from Harris Burdick.
> 
> Apparently, Harris Burdick presented the below picture (And others) with their titles and captions to Peter Wenders in hopes that Peter would be want to buy the stories that came with the pictures. Peter was intrigued by the pictures and asked Burdick to submit the corresponding stories the next day. However, Peter never heard from Harris Burdick again, so the "true" stories behind the pictures were never revealed.
> 
> A lot of famous authors have written stories for the pictures, authors like Stephen King. So my English class had to write our own story for one of his pictures and I picked the Picture a Strange Day in July and wrote this, I hope you enjoy.

            Felix collected a handful of stones, each one inspected by his careful young eyes. His curious younger sister, Renee close behind. As they reached the water’s edge they peered past its murky surface to see rippled twins smiling back at them in the warm summer sun.

            Felix launched the first two stones expertly, in quick succession across the lake’s surface. Hoping to send it to the lake’s far edge he threw with all his might, but the third came skipping back after it had sunk to the grimy bottom.

            “Magic!” Renee whispered dreamily, “Do it again do it again!” she chanted jumping up and down.

            Felix snorted “Pft, magic isn’t real!”, but he picked up another rock and chucked it into the water. Again it came skipping back with equal force.

            “See magic!”, she cried out jumping around excitedly.

            “Let’s see how strong this _magic_ is?” Felix challenged, finding a rock the size of a baseball a few steps away. Hefting it up, he used every muscle in his arm to launch it skyward, arching toward the center of the lake. It landed with a watery ka-plunk sending radiating ripples outward. The water went still and Felix grinned down at his sister like a reigning champion. “See just an odd occurrence”

            Renee pouted crossing her arms over her chest “You’re mean brother!” She stomped her foot scowling at him. As he laughed, turning his back on the water a resounding crack echoed through the air and Felix crumpled to the ground “BROTHER!” Renee cried out.

            Felix groaned clutching his head with a shaky hand. Renee was at his side as fast as her young legs could get her there. She crashed to her knees at his side and cried loudly “’Lix are you okay?”

            “I-I think so, my head hurts,” He pulled himself onto unsteady legs, “let’s go home” he said weakly.

            As they moved to walk to sound of water dripping and a tall shadow fell over them. Felix whipped around to see a massive watery creature. The monster grabbed at his legs knocking him down with a loud umph. “FELIX!” Renee screamed clinging to his hands to keep him as the beast pulled him toward the water.

            The lake was completely still despite the massive _thing_ that had crawled from it and traipsed onto land. But as the creature with Felix in tow got the brink of the water eerie tendrils of water lurched out and grabbed him by the ankles. They drug him to the muddy center before everything stilled. The monstrosity, the tendrils, all of it was gone. Felix treaded water; breathing heavily in the cool water, his body shaking with fear.             Renee whimpered her wide, fear-blown eyes never leaving her older brother, ”G-get out of there!” she shouted ignoring her own cuts and scrapes.

            Felix swam toward her a few feet but stopped, as still as death. His body erupted in a shower for blood and blown pieces of body, like a bomb had been set off inside his lean body. The water’s surface was stained a deep red with small chunks of flesh bobbing lazily.

            Renee shrieked screaming over and over, turning she ran, frantically looking for help. As soon as her feet hit sidewalk she started screaming her pleas for help to anyone and everyone; men, women, and children all came to her aid. They all ran to the lake lead by Renee, though she stopped dead, the water lapping at her feet.

            Gone, it was all gone. The blood no longer lingered in a misshapen pool, the hunks of human flesh were plucked from the water and stashed in some unknown universe. “N-No” she hiccupped “He was here! He was pulled in a-and something tore him to piece’s” she blabbered, pleading with them to believe her. Of course no one believed her.

They did search, the dragged the lake, sent search teams with dogs through the surrounding forestry and even took a helicopter up over the area. They found nothing, no sign no clues nothing of the boy, it was like Felix Harris had just disappeared from earth itself having been plucked from the ground by the angels. Time went on and people forgot about ‘The Harris Boy’ and his younger sister.

~

“Hey Felix” Renee smiled at her older brother, “I missed you today at lunch. How come you didn’t sit with me?”

He grinned “Sorry I was busy” he sat down on her small worn mattress.

            Dr. Burnett shook his head looking into the small padded cell, “She’s never going to accept her brother is dead and come out of this delusion.” He stated bluntly, rubbing his bearded chin.

Dr. Powell nodded in agreement, “Her psyche is far to fractured” they both walk down the hall of the small county asylum discussing various topics.

“I love you brother,” Renee smiled, hugging her brother tightly.

“I love you to, sis”  

 


End file.
